Price rise hits where it hurts

PUNE, Oct 11: Although adverse natural conditions and government apathy are being blamed for it, the prices of seven common cooking ingre...

PUNE, Oct 11: Although adverse natural conditions and government apathy are being blamed for it, the prices of seven common cooking ingredients found in the bourgeoisie kitchen have soared by average 36 per cent since January this year.

Even a cursory glance at the prices of essentials in Janauary and the current reveals the sordid growth which the market sources and watchers here have dubbed unsual’.

With groundnut oil recording the maximum hike at over 66 per cent compared to the Rs 42 per kilogram at the beginning of 1998, use of alternate edible oils has become inevitable while use of certain pulses like tur dal is virtually slated to become a luxury for several middle-class families.

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The hike in spite of adequate stocks have been attributed to various reasons with crop damage due to unseasonal showers being cited as the chief culprit.

Indian traders exported groundnuts despite low production this year, yet import of groundnut oil was dearer this year due to a price rise in manufacturing countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. This caused a continuous rise in the price of groundnut oil which now has crossed Rs 72 per kilogram. A major hike was registered between May and September, it was stated.

Traders were expecting a bumper groundnut crop at the beginning of the current kharif season, as the monsoon arrived on schedule.

Yet, torrential rains in the last leg of the monsoon for the last month followed by the post-monsoon unseasonal showers has caused considerable damage to the groundnut crop, virtually dashing all hopes of likely availability of fresh stocks of groundnut and groundnut oil before Diwali. The shortage has seen groundnut oil prices go up by Rs 14 to Rs 16 per kilogram within a span of less than a month.

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Exports of Basmati and other varieties of rice and inadequate supplies of rice through the public distribution scheme have taken up the rice prices by about Rs 2.50 per kilogram. Basmati prices have gone up by about Rs 800 per quintal while the hike in Ambemohor, Kolam and Chinnor varieties of rice was between Rs 200 to Rs 300 per quintal.

Incessant rains thwarting the jaggary making units coupled with an upward moving demand graph in the festive months, has taken the prices of premium quality jaggery to Rs 1800 per quintal while the retail marketeers are selling medium quality jaggery at Rs 17 to Rs 18 per kilogram.

Equally extreme are the hike in gram and pulses prices. The hike in tur dal rates also is being attributed to the rain gods’ fury and receding imports.